It’s been over a week since my last entry, but I’ve either been too busy or tired at night so I’ve not been able to write until now. I hope you haven’t given up on me. Let’s go back to last week, and I’ll take you to the time I left India…
Thursday, December 15, 2011
I spoke to a man at the leper colony who has been working with them since 1964, and he told us that leprosy is caused by a certain bacteria that is transmitted by nasal droplets, skin lesions, and prolonged close contact. I've read up on it a little bit, and it's also genetic. 95% of the world's population is naturally immune. India has one of the highest populations of leprosy in the world. It is treated by a multidrug therapy. People have to be on it for 2 - 5 years (if I remember what he said) before they can stop taking the drug. The people we were working with are no longer infectious. Dr. Susan, the school’s doctor, told me that there are 250,000 – 275,000 new cases each year in the world, and 50% of those are in India. It’s hard to believe that all they have to do is take an antibiotic and it will stop the progression of their leprosy, but they either don’t have the knowledge of that or the money for it, so they become deformed, lose extremities, hands, feet, and eyesight because of it. That’s so sad to me!
These are pictures from the leper colony we visited on Monday, Dec. 12:
Last Wednesday, I mostly tutored all day with the kids at the school. In the evening, we practiced a dance with Ann and Diana, the two volunteers that have been teaching dance to the kids each day. They were having a final dance rehearsal on Thursday night and wanted us to do sort of a flash mob thing with them to “Celebrate”. I also went to a few of the houses and read and talked to the kids. The little ones have to be in bed by 8:00, and the older ones by 9:00.
Thursday, I wanted to go to the leper colony again, so Diane and I road with the team to a village. First, we went to an orphanage with special needs children and colored with them for about an hour. They ranged in age from maybe 4 to around 20, but their mental ages were all about 3 or 4. It was hard to see the conditions they lived in. As we drove in, there was a beautiful high school. I was impressed; however, we drove around to the back and there was this dingy little building that was poorly lit and run-down. That’s where we found the orphanage. The kids were very sweet and so fun to work with, even if they didn’t really understand us. We were able to give them positive feedback on their coloring and they seemed pleased with themselves. They, too, were very loving and some even clingy.
After the orphanage, we drove over to the leper colony to clean and bandage feet again. It was raining quite hard, so it was hard for the lepers to come out. We stopped by one woman’s home who hardly had hands and couldn’t walk. I don’t think she had much of her legs left, either. I took some gauze and other things into her hut for her. There were only 3 or 4 lepers that showed up to the actual clinic this time because of the rain, so Diane and I just observed the nurse and the nurse intern bandage their feet. One man was a tailor and had his sewing machine right there, so I told him my grandfather had also been a tailor and asked to take his picture. Even though we didn’t actively participate, it was still a great day and very rewarding.
The woman who has lost her fingers and legs for the most part. I had to bend over to even get inside her hut. She obviously can't stand.
Thursday night we got to watch the kids practice their dances. They are really, really good! It was so much fun to watch them. They did a dance to a David Archuletta song that brought tears to my eyes. At one point in the dance, most of the kids formed poses as if they had leprosy. Two other dancers would later dance around, touch them, and lift them up as if they were being healed. The thing that touched me the most is HOW they looked in their poses. You could easily see that they had had first hand experience with lepers in their own families. It’s hard to see that and not be touched by it. Later, we did “Celebrate”, which was a lot of fun to dance for the kids. Then it was off to the houses again for the last night.
Some of the boys I visited in the evenings. I loved this group!
Friday morning, I tutored Vanilla Mary again. She’s 28, has two kids, and is a widow. I worked hard with her on her phonics and word recognition. She made me feel good when she told me she had already learned so much from me in only the two sessions I was able to work with her, and she was disappointed to hear that I was leaving that afternoon. I really enjoyed working with her. She’s darling!
Friday was Marriott Day, which is a really big deal for the kids. The Marriott Hotel has a strong connection to Rising Star Outreach. I think they have been a huge financial supporter for them. The kids had all prepared songs and/or dances to perform by grade (standard) level. Marriott employees sang Christmas songs to the kids and were all dressed with Santa hats on, and one was dressed as Santa Claus. The kids loved it. After all that, the Marriott employees dished out and served lunch to all the students and employees there with food they had brought. We had to leave before the dancers got to perform because we had to catch our taxi at 2:00 for Chennai. I felt lucky to see this day and be a part of it.
I think their last day for school was on Saturday, and they don’t come back until the day after Christmas for school again. The children were all excited to go home to see their families. They can have a family member visit them once a month. Otherwise, they hardly get to see their families for a long time. Each hostel (boys’ and girls’) has several “houses” with a “mother”. There are between 18-20 kids in each house. The kids were so cute and loving. I’m definitely going to miss that experience!
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